Until the last decade, gender inequality in the legal profession was selfevident.
Law school classrooms and law firm offices were overwhelmingly
filled with men. In recent years, women have outnumbered men in law school
classes and reached parity with men among first-year associates. These
developments have created the misperception that gender equality has been
achieved. In this Article, we challenge this complacency. We present new
evidence from a detailed case study of law firms in a midsize city, showing that women remain underrepresented in leadership roles and underpaid
relative to their colleagues. We then show how the limited opportunities and
lower pay women receive at law firms explain why so many have left. We
argue that the movement for gender equality in the law should shift its focus
from hiring to attrition. We provide crucial, incisive questions that law school
students and career service offices can use to better investigate the problem,
especially as students contemplate career decisions. By asking these
questions, we believe candidates can more accurately sense what the law firm
experience might entail. Through this process, we believe that students can
act as a force for change.
